Private Area
The Private Area exhibition was inspired by Polish construction lawlessness at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries - a period in which late communism, buckling under the weight of crises, and hastily constructed capitalism, emerging in chaos, gave rise to a number of alternative architectural practices. Home-made buildings are an interesting illustration of the spirit of this era, reflecting its aspirations and aesthetic preferences in a more perfect way than any legal architecture.
There are often easily identifiable economic, social or political reasons behind the occurrence of illegal acts; usually, regardless of their origin, these buildings raise justified legal objections. However, these considerations (as far as possible) will not be the subject of interest of the "Private Area". The exhibition will focus not on answering the question "why", but "how" self-made products were and are made. It will present a selection of buildings that were created without permits, and therefore without restrictions, and took on the most interesting and unusual forms, and at the same time often controversial and provoking heated discussions. Each of them is an example of expressive architecture that does not make any concessions. Making mistakes, but making them with brazen confidence. Risky, sometimes even dangerous. Individual freedom always comes before collective harmony. Manifesting that you can be yourself at home - and it doesn't matter to anyone else.
At the exhibition, we will not see documentation of any of the objects mentioned - but we will experience them in the interpretation and through artistic comments of authors invited to co-create the exhibition. They shed new light on the self-will portrayed - not always favorable, not always critical, simply new. Thanks to this, they allow us to gain distance from our own opinions, ideas, prejudices and try to answer the question: what can we learn from the Black Cat, the castle in Łapalice or a villa in Jastrzębie-Zdrój? And what lesson can we learn from them?